Swimming Lessons: Poems

Lili Reinhart pours out her soul in this book full of poems, of which are rooted much in love, depression & anxiety turned into radiant, intelligent, and insightful thoughts and entries. This is just the beginning for Reinhart as a writer, I absolutely cannot wait to read more from her in the future!!!!

Are you kidding me? This "collection" of "poetry" is mainly a few lacklustre lines stretched over each page with weak and apparently, traced drawings. Lacks depth, structure, or even in lieu of structure, fluidity.

How many pieces of repetitive prose can you squeeze into one book that offers the perspective of a swooning, weeping, lovestruck/lovesick individual?

Just because someone's character is well liked on a popular tv series does not a Poet make. That title was previously earned by the likes of Byron, Dylan, Poe, Maya etc.

And the unfortunate thing is, when you do not ascribe to the pressure of social media and "fans" to prop up such weak work, one runs the risk of being branded as bitter, envious or (gasp!) lacking discerning taste to see the nuances of such a masterpiece. Please, stop it.

The book is not worth it. As a mother of two beautiful daughters, I will NOT be exposing them to this. They have reading goals of actual high quality to achieve.

Please stop elevating sub par work just because it is issued from someone popular. Seriously.

I preordered this book last spring and have been excitedly waiting to read it since then. As soon as I received it, I began reading the pages and was quickly disappointed. I was hoping for a much better poetry book and was sorely disappointed.

I have loved everything about this poem book... Lili did an amazing job at making the poems personalized, which makes it all the much better for the reader (i.e., me)!
If you have gone through a heartbreak or been in love, read this!

I pre-ordered this book months ago. I was so excited to get this book yesterday. I read the whole thing in about 50 min. Some of the poems are 2 lines, most of them are super super short. These poems barely catch my attention, maybe about 8 truly did. Maybe I'm just being biased because I love to read poetry that makes me think and feel, and these poems barely did just that. I think it's maybe ment for a more teenage audience (I'm 22). It's honestly not bad for being her first poetry book, I just feel she held back a lot of her feelings in her words. I will say though, it does make me feel like I'm living a high school romance reading it, bittersweet feeling.

Why are we letting celebs publish their embarrassing 7th grade literary journal poetry? For someone who studied literature all their life, has a degree in English, it is absolutely cringeworthy and unreadable. It hurts that publishing companies are just publishing this for the sakes of riverdale fan money. If you’re over 14 and have read anything beyond YA fiction - skip this. It hurts. It physically hurts. It’s just so bad, it’s worse than that Gabbie Hanna poetry.

I am honestly surprised this book got published but I guess since she is an actress that's why. It seems very immature and lacks the emotion I thought it would have. But she is young so maybe just finding her way with words and feelings. I am glad I got this book from the library and didn't spend money on it. Sadly disappointing. I was hoping to be moved.

Just want to mention that with my personal reading style in regards to poetry, I base my overall thoughts on how deeply I resonate with the poems, how I feel the poems connect to one another (the flow for lack of a better word), and lastly, the physical layout of the words. I do not focus much on the linguistics of the collection.

I remember first hearing that Lili was going to publish a collection of poetry and getting quite excited. I'm a fan of hers (yes, due in part to Riverdale), though also because of her advocacy for body positivity and mental health.

As a first collection, I really enjoyed gliding through this. The entire book took me maybe 30 to 45 minutes at most (wasn't keeping track of time) and it was time well spent. This collection primarily revolves around the highs and lows of being in love, self-identity in relationships, and a bit of the aftermath. I do wish more poems centered on various observations surrounding life (not relationship-centered) and self-acceptance/love were included.

There's definitely a time and a place to critique an author's poetry in a technical and linguistic sense, though that's not really up my alley. I believe the prose was meaningful and simple without trying too hard to be "deep" as some authors do.

I enjoyed it so that the only reason it's 4 stars is that I wish it was longer (not really a con, I guess).

Overall, a smooth, sentimental read. I look forward to the author's future collections.

Rating: 4/5 stars.

What a great read! It will be a quick read when I am able to just sit and read it, but definitely worth the money. Lili Reinhart did an amazing job and I hope to see more from her writing!

Beautiful poetry. Intimate and insightful. I will say this though: while the illustrations are pretty, some are very explicit (I.e. nudity) so if you’re purchasing for a younger guy/gal, just be aware of that.